Strata: Exhibit Watch

Israel Museum Celebrates Newly Renovated Galleries

In July, the Israel Museum will reopen its main galleries after a three-year, $80-million renovation aimed at expanding and reorganizing the entire museum campus and its collections. Chief among the renovations was the redesign of the Bronfman Archaeological Wing, which houses more than 8,000 artifacts from the Biblical lands, including the newly installed and now largely restored 2,200-year-old Heliodorus Stela featured in the pages of BAR.^a

In celebration of the museum’s new Archaeological Wing, a special exhibit, Breaking Ground: Pioneers of Biblical Archaeology, showcases the early history of professional archaeology in the Holy Land, exploring the life stories, discoveries and scientific contributions of such archaeological luminaries as Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, Felicien de Saulcy and Conrad Schick, as well as the foundational excavation and survey work of the London-based Palestine Exploration Fund.